‘Ukraine won’t pull back troops’
Ukraine yesterday insisted it would not pull back its troops from the frontline until all sides cease fire under a peace plan aimed at ending five months of bloodshed in the east.
Kyiv and pro-Russian rebels are supposed to pull back their forces and weaponry to create a 30-kilometre wide buffer zone in line with a reinforced truce deal agreed in Minsk on Saturday.
But heavy gunfire erupted around the eastern insurgent stronghold of Donetsk yesterday, just hours after Nato’s top military commander had said there was a ceasefire “in name only” on the ground.
National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said the first point agreed in the Belarussian capital referring to a mutual ceasefire had to be respected before the rest of the plan could be implemented.
“But the first point has not yet been fulfilled, so we cannot speak about the other points,” he said.
“If (Ukrainian forces) are withdrawn, it will be done simultaneously with the Russian troop withdrawal.”
The nine-point Minsk plan is meant to reinforce a truce forged on September 5 in a bid to stem fighting that has claimed nearly 3,000 lives since April and threatened Ukraine’s very survival.
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Nato’s top commander General Philip Breedlove said on Saturday the continued clashes had shown it was a ceasefire “in name only” and accused Russia of keeping soldiers on Ukrainian soil to bolster the insurgents.
The peace pact came together only after all sides agreed to leave the most divisive political issues over the status of the rebel-held areas in Ukraine’s rustbelt for future negotiation.
However, handing a major olive branch to the rebels last week, Kyiv offered the eastern regions temporary self-rule and adopted legislation granting amnesty to fighters on both sides.